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Cleaning Up Chem/Bio Weapons Mess in D.C.; How Did Rudolph Survive in the Woods?; NASA Set to Launch Mars Rover
Aired June 07, 2003 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, HOST: Today on NEXT@CNN, cleaning up the mess from chemical and bio weapons. Not in Iraq but an hour outside of Washington, D.C.
Also, what does it take to live for years in the woods as Eric Rudolph apparently did? We'll talk to somebody who knows firsthand.
And NASA about to launch a new Mars rover that could find out if there's ever been life on the red planet. That and more ahead.
As the mosquito season threatens to take a bite out of your outdoor plans this summer, cities again prepare to confront the West Nile virus. CNN meteorologist Orelon Sidney joins us with some insight on how the virus made it to the U.S. and what the summer holds for us -- Orelon.
ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I wish I had news on how to get rid of it too. But unfortunately I don't have that.
One of the things that I've been fascinated with, though, is how the virus actually made it to the United States. We have a report for you that may give you a little bit of information.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIDNEY (voice-over): Just the mention of West Nile sends people running for insect repellent. And the notorious virus that's claimed hundreds of lives across the globe shows little signs of slowing down.
The experts differ on how West Nile Virus spread from Africa to the United States, but most agree that there's a link between migratory birds, which are hosts for the infection, and mosquitoes, which transmit the disease when they feed on humans, animals, and other birds.
But how did it get to North America?
The virus that causes swelling in the brain and spinal column was first detected in Uganda's West Nile district in 1937. And the winding path it traveled from east Africa to the United States may lend support to the theory that migratory birds played a part in spreading the disease.
From Uganda the virus spread to Egypt, then Israel, to western Europe, northern Africa, and on to eastern Europe. It then showed up in central Africa, went on to Russia, then the United States, with the first cases detected in New York and three other northeastern states in 1999.
In the four years since the virus was first spotted, it has spread to 44 states across the country. By 2002, there were over 4,000 human cases of West Nile, and almost 300 deaths.
With no cure available, public health experts are urging people to protect themselves and remove all standing water from around their homes. And this year, with almost a dozen states already showing evidence of infected birds and animals, they warn that the spread is not over.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIDNEY: Of course, one of the things you have to worry about is standing water. And one of the problems we've had is extensive rainfall. So far this spring, just take a look at the May 2003 rainfall totals. All of these locations were above normal, from the Mississippi River all the way out into the Atlantic, northward into New England. In fact, some states picked up 200 percent of their normal rainfall. Look at Tennessee, almost 10 inches reported for the month. Southward in Alabama, just about eight inches.
The problem here, of course, is a lot of this region is swampy. Like in the back of my house, the water stands all the time.
There is some good news. As we go through the summer, at least in the beginning, we're not expecting any unusual patterns of precipitation. But there is another problem, as hurricane season gets going. For July, August, and September, southern Florida from Lake Okachobee southward looks for above normal precipitation.
And as we go through the hurricane season, northward into October, you will see above normal rainfall, as well, across parts of the mid Atlantic, all the way up to about Cape Hatteras.
You do want to make sure, even if you're not in one of these areas, that you take precautions for mosquitoes. Things like emptying your dog's bowl. We have a swimming pool in the backyard for our dog. And we have to clean that out about once a week. Even Dad puts a little bleach in it, I understand. That helps to keep the mosquitoes down.
Make sure to repair your outdoor faucets and don't go outside, if you can help it, between dusk and dawn. Apparently, that's the time that the mosquitoes are the most active.
And just a little tip for you, I found out only female mosquitoes bite. They actually have to have the blood in order to lay their eggs and create more mosquitoes -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Orelon, did I hear right? Did you say you have a swimming pool just for your dog?
SIDNEY: It's for the dog. We won't go there, but the dog does have a swimming pool.
WHITFIELD: We've got to go there later, because I've got to have the details on that. All right, so this is all the more reason why people have to really be diligent, knowing that this rainy season is just beginning.
SIDNEY: That's exactly right.
WHITFIELD: You have to be proactive.
What are some of the things they really need to do besides turning over those, I guess, standing water bowls, those dog bowls? Et cetera.
SIDNEY: One of the things that I've found is very helpful is also making sure that you repair the leaks around the house. Because especially the downspouts. You can get those little pools of water. And any puddle of water is going to be a place where mosquitoes breed.
As far as your animals are concerned, remember that they're susceptible, too, not to West Nile but to heartworm.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
SIDNEY: So you do want to vaccinate your dogs against heartworm. Unfortunately there's no vaccine for us. We'll have to wait for that for several years.
One of the best things you can do, though, is to wear insect repellent, especially one that contains DEET -- D-E-E-T. You only want to use as much as you need for the time you're going to be outside, but I'm here to tell you if you go hiking like I do in the mountains of Georgia, the kind of insect repellent they make for those city mosquitoes, it doesn't work as well when you're out in the mountains. So you do want to take a little extra precaution when you go out.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks a lot, Orelon. Of course, if you have kids, you're got to read the label because certain age groups need to stay away from DEET, though. Always good advice.
SIDNEY: That's right.
WHITFIELD: Thanks a lot, Orelon. Appreciate it.
Well, it's the kind of trip you can plan and plan for but don't know how it's going to turn out. And when the destination is Mars, more than 48 million Miles away, there's more than a little nail biting involved.
Space correspondent Miles O'Brien has more on a new Mars rover mission set for launch tomorrow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They call themselves elves. Unseen, and their job, to make magic happen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you ready for egress?
O'BRIEN: They work at NASA's gateway to the galaxy, Pasadena's fabled jet propulsion laboratory, in a place they affectionately refer to as the sandbox.
But that's not to say this is play time. They are staging the final dress rehearsals for the nail biting main events that have consumed them for past three years: a pair of bold odysseys to the surface of Mars.
This test is a success.
But the celebration is clipped and muted. They work in the shadow of a devastating debacle: the twin failures of the Mars polar lander and climate orbiter in late 1999.
But they also remember the sweet taste of success, of Mars Pathfinder and its rover, Sojourner, in the summer of '97.
JENNIFER TROGPEN, PRODUCT SYSTEM ENGINEER: this is an extremely complex mission. And a lot of us on the team can compare it to Sojourner and Mars Pathfinder. And I think when we talk about that, we think it's about ten times as complex, and we developed it in about half the time. So that's a significant challenge for all of us.
O'BRIEN: They are working under an unforgiving deadline. Not imposed by Washington fiat, but the laws of physics. Every 26 months, Mars and Earth fly in close orbital formation. It's only then a mission to the red planet is possible. And this time Mars is closer than ever.
NAGIN COX, DEP. CHIEF, SPACECRAFT TEAM: this happens to be a particularly good opportunity where we're close enough and the geometry works out that we have an excellent data return. So that means we can bring more pictures, more information about Mars, back to the people of the Earth, in this particular landing opportunity.
O'BRIEN: The twin missions to hunt for signs of life are set for a journey of a quarter billion miles, carrying identical red planet rovers. They're the size of golf carts. If all goes as planned, they will enter the wispy Martian atmosphere on opposite sides of the planet in January, and then deploy parachutes and air bags to cushion their arrival on the rust-colored surface.
JIM ERICKSON, MISSION MANAGER: We do as much as we can to make sure it's a gentle landing. You know, it doesn't sound like it, when we're bouncing on these air bags.
O'BRIEN: In 1999 the Mars polar lander was supposed to arrive alive by using a parachute and then a rocket motor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry to report in a nominal no contact M.R. path. O'BRIEN: But when the landing gear deployed with a jolt, a sensor mistook that as touchdown, cutting the engine more than 1,000 feet above the surface.
Two months earlier, the Mars climate orbiter augured into Mars after navigators got confused between metric and English measurements. They were bitter pills for the team.
ERICKSON: We do get very attached to them. And it's probably a good thing, because we take very good care of them. We're entrusted with the public's money to do the right kind of a job. So it's something we take very seriously. And we have great affection for these machines that we build.
O'BRIEN: Today there's no more talk of faster, better, cheaper, the NASA mantra implicated in the failures. This time, the space agency is spending about $800 million to reach Mars with the two landers, about three times more than the price tag for the failed polar lander. And instead of farming work out to contractors in academia, these are in-house projects. Their babies, if you will.
ERICKSON: It's great, it's almost like the birth of a child, in some ways, where you've been waiting, you're been working, and then suddenly, it happens.
O'BRIEN: Mars is an unforgiving destination. Over the years, only one in three missions have succeeded. A little elf magic may be just what is needed.
Miles O'Brien, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: When we come back, new evidence this week that the Earth is getting greener. But that may not be good news. We'll tell you why.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Checking some of the stories making news this week, the panel investigating the Shuttle Columbia disaster has new evidence after conducting an important test in Texas this week.
The investigation team has been firing pieces of foam insulation into shuttle surfaces at high speeds to see what kinds of damage results.
On Friday, investigators fired foam at a wing covered with reinforced carbon carbon, the material at the heart of the current leading theory as to what went wrong with Columbia. The test opened a three-inch crack in the wing. The panel says it is still too soon to say if that's what doomed Columbia, which broke up just before it was scheduled to land on February 1.
They don't call it the greenhouse effect for nothing. New NASA images of our planet from space are part of a new study indicating climate change has made earth greener over the past two decades.
Researchers say increased rain, heat, carbon dioxide and sunlight have created ideal conditions in certain parts of the globe for plants to go wild. Plant growth increased 6 percent over 18 years with nearly half of that coming in the Amazon rain forest.
So is this the smoking gun that proves manmade global warming is for real? The study doesn't go that far but it is another piece of the puzzle.
Almost immediately after the arrest of bombing suspect Eric Rudolph, people started asking, how could he survive for nearly five years in the wilderness?
Ida Hatter is a woman who learned to hunt, fish, and forage while still a youngster. She now teaches about wild edibles and medicinal plants through videos and classes at the Smoky Mountain Field School in Tennessee. It's knowledge that's important even if you're not on the run.
Ida Hatter is with us now.
And you brought some of the stuff that you foraged out in the forests, right?
ILA HATTER, NATURALIST: Right. I brought the wild to you.
WHITFIELD: All right. So it's not so out of the ordinary, in your view, that someone could survive in, say, the Natanhala forest, the 500,000 acres of dense forestation in North Carolina. And some of the things they need to look for include what?
HATTER: There are a lot of vitamins and minerals out there that can sustain life. There's a lot of good flavors in the fields and forests. Things that I cook with every day.
WHITFIELD: Really?
HATTER: And there's things in your backyard that you probably didn't even know were there that are good nutrition.
WHITFIELD: OK. Educate us.
HATTER: All right. The very first tonic which was three "S," the SSS tonic, that stood for sweet birch, sassafras, and spice bush. And I brought those with me today. This is the sweet birch, which has an aspirin-like compound in it, so it would preventing fatigue and headache and so forth. And it was the commercial source of wintergreen.
WHITFIELD: So how would you ingest this? Are you going to, like...
HATTER: You would boil the twigs.
WHITFIELD: OK. HATTER: And at one time, of course, they made...
WHITFIELD: And then drink the juice?
HATTER: Drink it, right. You put it into the water.
WHITFIELD: And that would serve as your aspirin?
HATTER: You would have aspirin in the water which you were drinking, yes.
And this is the spice bush. It, too, has a lot of vitamins and minerals in it. And it is said also now to perhaps alleviate some of the pain of arthritis.
WHITFIELD: That's strong. So you've really got to know your leaf shapes, too, in order to...
HATTER: Yes.
WHITFIELD: ... identify a lot of this stuff, because otherwise it just looks like a lot of green matter.
HATTER: Right.
WHITFIELD: So what do you look for, for something like this?
HATTER: Identification is really important. Know exactly what you're about to ingest or put on your skin, be absolutely positive of what you're using. But once you've learned them and you see them next to -- say, this grows next to dogwood. So when you learn the differences, it's really easy to spot them. An of course, it has that distinctive aroma in it, too.
WHITFIELD: Yes, that was strong.
HATTER: And the sassafras, which the roots of sassafras have always made root beer. So we're familiar with that one. It has the different shaped leaves. It's the mitten tree, kids call it. Because it has a right- and left-handed shaped mitten. So you have the root beer flavor with this and the spiciness.
And these are the seeds, or the berries off of -- dried spice bush berries. And people have always used these for a substitute for cloves and allspice and they are really good. These are the ones I cook with.
WHITFIELD: So you can cook, you can survive, you believe, on most of the stuff that you find out there to eat. But you can also use some of these plants as tools, can't you? Show me how you can use a huge leaf as a cup.
HATTER: All right.
WHITFIELD: To drink. HATTER: Here is a young tulip popular leaf. It's quite large, as you can see. They're not normally this size. But on the young trees, they are very large. And you can fold it, much like you'd fold a diaper. Find one that doesn't have any holes or tears in it. And if you fold it this way, use the stem...
WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh.
HATTER: ... as the pin. And you have a cup that can hold more water than your hand can hold.
WHITFIELD: Wow. You've tried that?
HATTER: Yes.
WHITFIELD: It's effective?
HATTER: It's effective, yes. So there's a wilderness cup.
And I also brought a little bit of...
WHITFIELD: Is that twine or something?
HATTER: Right. You can make cordage. This is very strong cordage that's made from dog bane or...
WHITFIELD: So you can even create, perhaps, a place in which to hide by using a lot of this brush, can't you?
HATTER: You can...
WHITFIELD: I understand there's something called a debris hut.
HATTER: A debris hut.
WHITFIELD: How would you do that, how would you use it?
HATTER: Well, you can use a debris hut, which is, like, a triangular shape of limbs from the tree or even in the crook of the tree with one piece down and with a triangle of two others. And then you lay branches and leaves and layers against that.
WHITFIELD: To sort of protect you from the elements?
HATTER: To protect you from the elements, and you can stay quite warm in that. You can also stuff leaves and various things like milk pods, milkweed pods and things, as insulation inside your clothes. But you can stay warm. You can stay -- for long stretches of time, you could keep yourself fed and warm and you could have medicine in the woods, insulation and so forth, for like I said, long stretches. You would need carbohydrates, which would be difficult to get. You'd have protein, vitamins and minerals, but carbohydrates you would have to take with you or find them elsewhere.
WHITFIELD: Well, Ila Hatter. Who knew you could make a cup out of one of these poplar tree leaves? I don't know what to do with all those things...
HATTER: Here's your bandages.
WHITFIELD: Oh, really?
HATTER: Toilet paper or bandages.
WHITFIELD: And it's kind of fuzzy there, so that's what makes it absorbent?
HATTER: Yes, that's right.
WHITFIELD: All right. Ila Hatter, thanks very much, appreciate it. Thanks for bringing all this stuff for us.
HATTER: You're welcome.
WHITFIELD: Now we can all be a little bit more inventive and creative out there. Thanks a lot.
Well, when we come back, deadly leftovers from the Cold War and how to clean it up safely.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Well, no evidence of biological weapons has turned up in Iraq, but it is showing up in Maryland, along with toxic chemicals at a former military dump.
Jeanne Meserve reports a massive cleanup is underway.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dredged up from the dirt, a crushed and corroded drum, potentially so dangerous workers wear protective suits. A tent covers the site. And the surrounding ground is frozen to prevent the spread of contaminants.
What have they found here? One-hundred-and-thirteen vials, some containing live bacteria. Including a cousin of the microbe that causes plague, and a non-disease causing strain of anthrax used in vaccines.
PHILIP HAGAN, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Typically on something like that, they would be dead. And I was surprised to hear that they were alive. It just shows you how viable and how long-lived some things can be, given protective conditions.
MESERVE: Testing indicates none of the pathogens have survived in the soil.
How did the vials get there? In the '50s and '60s, the U.S. developed and tested its arsenal of biological weapons right here at Fort Detrick.
This was a waste dump. But until recently, no one knew the full scope of what had been put here.
LT. COL. DONALD ARCHIBALD, DIRECTOR OF SAFETY ENV., FT. DETRICK: The practice of the days in the '50s, '60s, and '70s was to find a place, to dig a trench, put your chemicals and things, put your trash in a trench and cover it up.
MESERVE: Chemicals are here, like the cleaning solvents perchloraethylene and tetrachloraethylene, which have contaminated the soil and ground water as containers have deteriorated.
HAGAN: And when they get into the groundwater, PCE is a carcinogen. And TCE can cause liver damage. Kidney damage.
MESERVE: In 1991, the chemicals showed up in the wells of some nearby homes, in concentrations well in excess of EPA limits.
ARCHIBALD: When we found out that it was going off the base, was we put anybody who was drinking water out of their wells on their own property on bottled water.
MESERVE: The cleanup began ten years after the groundwater contamination showed up. But by and large, the community has been pleased by the Army's responsiveness.
GERALD TOOMEY, FT. DETRICK ADVISORY GROUP: It's been positive. Slow and agonizing, but positive.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: And it's not over yet. The cleanup won't be done until next spring. The final price tag, $27 million -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Now, Jeanne, why did it take so long to get this cleanup started in the first place?
MESERVE: Well, when they figured out they had a problem with the chemicals, first they had to get a sense of the dimensions of the problem. The records were not very well kept. They went back and they talked to former employees, they took aerial photographs of the site. They even did electromagnetic surveys to try and figure out exactly where those chemical drums were.
They established a protocol, then they had to go through the process of getting funding to do this. And then when they finally started digging, they found the biological agents. And then they had two sets of safety protocols that they had to deal with. So it has been a very time-consuming sort of effort.
WHITFIELD: Lots of layers. All right. Thanks very much, Jeanne Meserve from Washington.
Well, coming up in our next half hour, wildfires aren't the biggest threat facing the nation's forests. We'll hear some heated and conflicting opinions about what helps forests and what hurts them.
Also, one country's plan for controlling problem bears with pepper and paint? First, a quick break and a check of the latest headlines.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
WHITFIELD: This week, environmental groups accused the Bush administration of endangering the nation's forests with its plan called the Healthy Forest Initiative. But supporters of the initiative say it's critically needed to control wildfires.
Joining us with some differing views on the subject are R.J. Smith of the Center for Private Conservation and Scott Paul of Greenpeace. Welcome to both of you.
R.J. SMITH, CENTER FOR PRIVATE CONSERVATION: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: R.J., let me begin with you. What's your interpretation of this plan?
SMITH: Well, I certainly don't think this is going to endanger the forests. I think burning the forests down has been what has been a threat and endangerment to the nation's forests, and this is a step in the right direction to recognize that our forest management policies over the last 20 years have been an absolute disaster. I mean, we've been burning down our forests left and right, we've been losing clean air, clean water, destroying wildlife and wildlife habitat, burning down the homes of endangered species. All because people say we should not go in and manage the forests and now we're finally waking up to the fact that we can't afford to burn down these millions of acres every year or every other year, in the national forests.
WHITFIELD: Well...
SMITH: And I think this is across the boards, I mean, republicans and democrats alike recognize that we are sitting on a ticking time bombs with our forest management policy and we must change it and that's what the House voted to do.
WHITFIELD: Well, R.J. let me bring Scott into the picture. Scott, the argument has been that you have to have some sort of managed burning of these forests because they're likely to burn out of control, and there you end up having a problem of a number of the habitats, human or otherwise, that become destroyed if these wildfires. Is this the right approach in which to have some sort of controlled burnings?
SCOTT PAUL, GREENPEACE: The president's plan is not the right approach. First of all, it's very important to remember that fires are a natural part of the forest ecosystem. The president's plan is taking advantage of a very serious problem, it's preying on fears. When you're talking about forest fires, the president's plan mixes apples and oranges. The president is essentially planning to log Idaho to save Malibu. The Forest Services's own statistics say if you want to protect forests in and around homes, then you manage the land within 200 feet of the home itself and you fireproof the home itself. The president is planning on going out to Idaho to log old growth forests to pay back political campaign contributions and his plan does not speak directly to the buffer zone -- the two hundred foot buffer zone in and around communities.
Historically, last year's fires were not above average in the wilderness. The problem took place in and around urban developments where the homes were not properly defended against outbreak of fire.
WHITFIELD: So, R.J., do you see it this way? Robbing Peter to pay Paul?
SMITH: No, I think last year the forests came out of roadless areas. The missionary fire in Colorado, I mean we burned down 40,000 acres of roadless areas, that was more than has been cut in those areas in ten years. The fires that took place in Arizona in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests came out of wild of roadless areas where there was no way to get in and fight those areas. And what the president is calling for and what the western governors are calling for, and remember, almost one-fifth of all democrats in the House voted for this "Healthy Forest" management act. But, they want to go in and to thin out the forests, reduce the deadwood, take out dead and dying trees, diseased trees, insect ridden trees, take out all the...
WHITFIELD: But, is that what happens -- this selective approach of looking for the dying or deadened or diseased trees? Or it's just take out a lot, you know, a designated area?
SMITH: We have to take out a lot of this underbrush, a lot of this -- all these trees in there, I mean, we used to -- yes, fire is natural provided you haven't prevented it for 100 years like we have and particular since Smoky the Bear came in. We put out every fire, we haven't allowed natural fires to come in, so we don't have natural forests anymore, it's fill with thickets.
WHITFIELD: Scott, how do you respond to that?
PAUL: The fires, last year that took place in the wilderness, in the wilderness in the roadless areas, were by no means above average, the national norm, in fact over the last century, they were under half the average of national norm. The Forest Service itself said that these fires were not above average. The issue is fire in and around urban development, fire in and around homes, the president's plan does not speak to this. The president uses scare tactics such as fire outbreak and shows images of fires being devastating rural developments, meanwhile he's directing the Forest Service to go to Idaho, to rural areas that are naturally fire resistant. The president's plan does not speak to protection of fires in and around communities. It directs the Forest Service into old growth ancient forests that are naturally fire resistant, where fire is a natural part of the eco system.
WHITFIELD: And, R.J....
SMITH: I just disagree with that, I think it's an effort to thin out and make the forests healthy everywhere in the West and I think it's a cop-out on the part of some of the radical environmental movements
PAUL: No, this is...
WHITFIELD: Well, R.J., why not...
SMITH: ...to say that all we have to
WHITFIELD: Let me interject
SMITH: ...is have a little buffer...
WHITFIELD: Let me interject. R.J., why not let Nature take its course since the majority of wildfires that took place most recently in Florida, about three years ago, the majority of those wildfires took place and were sparked as a result of lightning strikes?
SMITH: All right, well, what we did, we -- with Smoky the Bear, we started a policy of putting out fires everywhere and once you had such a ticking time bomb of fuel, of deadwood, of dead and dying trees, of thickets of brush, and so on that weren't being cleared out, then when a fire comes through it's absolutely devastating, it destroys the whole forest, it destroys the wildlife, the endangers species, the water quality in streams, and so on. And, what this is an effort to is, to begin to reduce those fuel loads in the forest, so that we'll have healthy forests and then we can have periodic fires that will go through the forests and clean the forest out and not do any harm. And if you let...
WHITFIELD: Well, Scott, do you...
PAUL: Fredricka, this just plain isn't true, where the fires are taking place of extreme intensity are areas that the Forest Service has already managed, where they went in and logged and miss-logged for decades. These are where the significant fires are taking place. These are fires that are coming into the urban wilderness interface and destroying homes. The wilderness areas, these are not unnatural fires, these are part of the ecosystem and these are not causing significant...
WHITFIELD: So Scott, it's your contention it's not the wildlife that is being protected here, but instead, it may be the real estate?
PAUL: Well, who's being protected here, are the political kind of people who are making political campaign contributions. $71 million in campaign contributions came in from the timber and mining industry on our National Forests. These are the people who are being paid back. The president is using claims of excessive red tape and fire scare to give the timber industry access to forests that they've coveted for years.
WHITFIELD: All right, Scott. Well, R.J., you get the last 10 seconds.
SMITH: The people who have access to the forests are all of the people, they're managed for multiple use. So, receptionists can get in there, families can get in there, people who are handicapped can get in the forests. That's what forests -- roads in the forest are for. Yes, people go in and log.
PAUL: Logging is for handicapped people?
SMITH: But the logs are used for people, they build homes...
WHITFIELD: OK...
SMITH: ...people like toilet paper, they like Kleenex, they like these things that come out of the forest and it also allows people to bird watch in the forest, to hunt and fish, and recreate in the forest.
WHITFIELD: R.J. Smith of the Center for Private Conservation, and Scott Paul of Greenpeace, thanks very much gentlemen, for joining us.
PAUL: Thank you.
SMITH: It was good to be on, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And for a view from the firing line of last summer's fire season, the most intense in 50 years, be sure to catch "CNN Presents: Summer of Fire," Sunday at 8:00 Eastern Time, 5:00 Pacific.
When we come back, we'll find out why a respected online magazine is teaching its readers how to write viruses.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Good news for California's sea otters and those who love them. A survey in May spotted record numbers of otters off the coast. The U.S. geological survey counted more than 2,500 otters during the five day census, the highest count since they've been keeping records and almost 400 otters more than last year.
In April, scientists were worried because so many dead otters were washing ashore. Now they say the increased number of deaths may have just been because there were more otters overall.
The El Dorado County California Sheriff's Department has a new scheme for keeping black bears away from the town of Lake Tahoe and its tempting garbage. When a dumpster diving bear is spotted, deputies will shoot a blast of pepper spray nearby, then a paint ball to mark the bear with the permanent dye. They're hoping pepper spray will scare the bears off for good, but if it doesn't, the fluorescent dye is intended to identify the bears that have been caught with their paws in the garbage. Problem bears sometimes have to be euthanized and wildlife activists hope this will prevent cases of mistaken identity.
The San Antonio Zoo is proudly showing off a new arrival, a baby anteater. You can see the little critter riding on its mother's back there, if you squint really hard. Zoo officials say baby and mother are both doing just great. They don't know the sex of the new anteater just yet and they say it will be awhile before it starts eating ants. In January of this year, a computer virus known as "Slammer" slowed Internet traffic to a crawl, now in a controversial move, "Wired" magazine is going to walk its readers through exactly how that happened, including revealing the virus code itself. CNN technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg joins us with more on that -- Dan.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNICAL CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, that's right, you know when the "Slammer" worm hit the Internet back in January, it reportedly caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage, we're talking about everything from the Internet being jammed up because it was being sent out at such high rate, plane schedules were disrupted, ATMs shut down, a lot of problems. Of course, the sky didn't exactly fall with "Slammer," but there were a lot of problems involved and now on Tuesday, "Wired" magazine will be publishing its issue -- it's upcoming issues and in it they will have the code from this virus "Slammer" or "Sapphire," as it's often know. So, why are they doing this and how do they respond to some of the controversy around it?
I'm joined, right now, by Blaise Zerega, he is the managing editor of "Wired" magazine, to talk all about this.
Blaise, first the obvious question that comes up on everybody's mind, isn't this analogous to a magazine publishing a how-to for, say a rocket propelled grenade or something like that? Is this going to be more damaging than educational?
BLAISE ZEREGA, MANAGING EDITOR OF "WIRED": We think not, Daniel. The people who are in a position to wreak havoc upon the Internet do not turn to "Wired" magazine to read step-by-step instructions for hacking. However, the people who are in a position to safeguard the Internet, business leaders, technology leaders, politicians, entrepreneurs, they do turn to "Wired" magazine and read us for information on important issues just like this.
SIEBERG: Now, why the decision to publish now, though? The virus, itself, came out about six months ago, there was a patch available from Microsoft even before that. Is there timing associated with the reason that you're doing it now?
ZEREGA: This story is incredibly timely and relevant. Protecting cyberspace is part of Homeland Security, there were attacks in the fall, the "Slammer" virus attacked in January and just this past week, a new worm called Bugbear" -- or actually a new version of a worm called "Bugbear" has been making its way across the Internet.
SIEBERG: Right, "Bugbear" and actually so big, as well, another one people are concerned about, these days. Let's talk a little bit, though about the fact that -- although the code for "Slammer" is already on the Internet and people can have access to it, what was the editorial decision at "Wired" to decide to publish -- I have a copy of the magazine her, don't know if you can see it, but it does have the code in it. Are you not worried that there will be some sort of low- level hackers out there who sees this and they say, oh, finally, this is what I need to do to create a more effective virus out there? ZEREGA: That's a fair question, however, bringing down the Internet is a lot more difficult than cutting and pasting code, putting it in e-mail, and sending it to someone.
SIEBERG: By that rationale, though -- why would you decide to put it out there at all? A lot of anti-virus companies already know this code or they know the problems associated with it. Where do you see the educational purposes of this?
ZEREGA: We are committed to open to, you know, information. Unfettered communication, we want to help set the agenda for public discourse and in this case, we believe in security, not obscurity, if there's a risk, if there's a vulnerability to the Internet, let's shine a light and get people to talk about it.
SIEBERG: Blaise, very quickly -- how do you respond to anybody who says this is sensationalist and just designed to sell magazines?
ZEREGA: I simply don't buy it. We think this is a very important story, we take great care with every word, every image that goes into our magazine so that we can stand by it.
SIEBERG: All right, well, Blaise Zerega, managing editor of "Wired," thanks for joining us to talk about that. And, maybe it's not going to quell all the controversy around it after talking to him, and people will certainly be keeping an eye on this magazine when it comes out on store shelves on Tuesday.
Fredricka, back to you.
WHITFIELD: All right, looking for that, thanks a lot, Dan.
SIEBERG: All right.
WHITFIELD: When we come back, a scientific look at baseball bat tampering. Does it work?
And why the world of big-time horse racing is very interested in this old mule? Coming up -- where is it? Oh, well, we'll show it to you later on.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Sammy Sosa may be down but he's not out, at least not yet, in fact he's in the lineup today as the cubs take on the Yankees in Chicago. Mary Frances Bragiel with CNN affiliate, W -- or rather CLTV, who's now from Wrigley Field, and what's the latest there, Mary Frances, I thought he was suspended?
MARY FRANCES BRAGIEL, CLTV CORRESPONDENT: No, he is not. Hi, Fredricka. Actually he's getting a lot of support. As of Friday he is facing an eight-game suspension. However, he and the Cubs are appealing it, which is the reason why he is able to play this weekend. I've also been told that as of Monday, he will find out when a hearing will be scheduled regarding that suspension. But, I've got to tell you he has had a tough week, but he has a lot of support, not only from the Cubs but also from his teammates, as well as, his fans. I went and watched the game a little bit, today. The first time he went up to plate, he got a standing ovation from all the fans, which has got to be a good -- it's got to be a good feeling for him, because he -- as I said, he has had a tough week. Yesterday after he lost the game he was asked about the suspension. He said he didn't want to talk about the suspension; he wanted to talk about the game -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And he is appealing because he says of the more than 70 bats they examined, there were no other -- you know, hanky-panky evidence going on in those other 70 bats, but this indeed was an anomaly, his one practice bat.
BRAGIEL: Exactly, it was one practice bat, he said he is truly sorry, it was truly a mistake. And despite the debate, all week, that's been going on, most of his fans believe what has happened is a true mistake. These bats have been examined; they found no other cork in the other bats, so he's appealing the process and as I said, he's got a lot of support. So, hopefully he can go ahead with this once -- once they move on, and go ahead with his career, which I think will be just fine.
WHITFIELD: All right, Mary Frances Bragiel, thanks very much, appreciate it.
BRAGIEL: You're welcome.
WHITFIELD: Well, how big an advantage does a corked bat give a heavy hitter like Sammy Sosa? The real answer may surprise you. Miles O'Brien got to the bottom of it earlier this week in an interview with the guru of baseball physics.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Why all the fuss about corked bats? You might ask. I want you to meet Bob Adair, he is the author of "The Physics of Baseball," he's a retired professor of physics at, no less than a best institution than, Yale University, and was once -- get this, the official physicist for the National League. The official physicist, who knew? It's good to have you with us, Bob.
I understand Bart Giamatti was the one who signed you up in that role.
BOB ADAIR, AUTHOR, "THE PHYSICS OF BASEBALL": Yes, Bart called me up one evening and asked me to look into a few things, including corked bats.
O'BRIEN: All right, Bob. We're going to show the videotape. I know you can't see CNN, but you've seen it by now. It's lower in the bat than you might expect, and I'm trying to highlight it here, it's almost like the shape of an arrowhead -- there it is, it looks like an arrowhead or an almond or something and it appears it was put in sort of laterally. Is that the typical way that a bat is corked? ADAIR: No. I've never heard of anybody doing anything like that.
O'BRIEN: It seems on the face of it, I'm no expert; but it seems as if that would make the bat more likely to break.
ADAIR: Make it more likely to break, and I can't see that it would do anything particular about making the ball go better.
O'BRIEN: All right, well, let's talk about what's more likely a scenario, if in fact someone were inclined to cork a bat -- we've got a bat, here. This is an official Louisville Slugger, Dale Murphy signed this one. As I understand it, you check me on this, Bob, if I'm wrong. Usually what happens is, a hole about a quarter inch in diameter is drilled right up in the top...
ADAIR: Oh, about an inch and a quarter is (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
O'BRIEN: Inch and a quarter, and it goes how down -- how far down?
ADAIR: Oh, maybe six inches, this is just typical, you know.
O'BRIEN: All right, six inches down, right down the top and -- what's put in? Is it always cork?
ADAIR: Well, people put in all sorts of stuff. That's superstition. People put in cork, SuperBalls, whatever strikes their fancy.
O'BRIEN: SuperBalls? Interesting. So, what that implies is that what you're creating here is a little more elasticity in the bat, and that has sort of a slingshot effect on the ball. Is that really what happens?
ADAIR: Nope.
O'BRIEN: Well, tell us what happens, then.
ADAIR: What really happens is you have a little lighter bat.
O'BRIEN: And, that's a good thing? You want a lighter bat, right?
ADAIR: Well, not necessarily a good thing. Babe Ruth used a 47 ounce bat...
O'BRIEN: 47...
ADAIR: ...and even a 56 ounce bat.
O'BRIEN: 47 ounces, my goodness. You'd need a pneumatic device to lift it up. That's something. So, these days the theory is lighter is better, right?
ADAIR: Not my theory. O'BRIEN: Really?
ADAIR: Mickey Mantle used the 38 ounce bat.
O'BRIEN: Really?
ADAIR: That's right.
O'BRIEN: All right, so why, then? Let's, just for a moment, accept that...
ADAIR: By and large, a heavier bat drives the ball better, but of course it takes longer to swing. So, there's a tradeoff. With a lighter bat, it takes a little less time to swing, so you have a little better timing on the pitch, but you're actually not going to drive the ball quite as far.
O'BRIEN: Oh, interesting. So, really, by drilling it out, putting cork or SuperBalls, whatever you want to put in there, you're potentially hurting yourself as a hitter?
ADAIR: Well, it may improve your timing and you may hit the ball a lot more often. It'll probably take a few feet off of a long home run.
O'BRIEN: So, in other words, it makes you more of a Wade Boggs than Sammy Sosa?
ADAIR: Well, a man like Sosa hits the ball so far anyway, he doesn't have to worry about taking a few feet off and it may be that gaining a few thousandths of a second, six inches on the fastball, may be worth more to him than losing a few feet on a home run that goes into the 20th row of the stands rather than the 22nd, or something.
O'BRIEN: Which bags the question, why oh, why would Sammy Sosa, a person with such incredible skill -- bother with all of this?
ADAIR: Well, these ballplayers are not stupid people. They understand their game very well, but some of the technical aspects, there's superstition involved, they're not trivial. And my guess is that Sammy was a little misled on things.
O'BRIEN: A little mislead, a little superstition, there you have it. That's baseball in a nutshell -- isn't it? Bob Adair, great to see you, thanks for your insights on all of this.
ADAIR: Thanks for inviting me.
O'BRIEN: And giving us the real facts, the Newtonian facts. Physics from Bob Adair, the baseball physicist.
Who knew?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, we know now. Well, that's all we have time for today. But, next we'll be back tomorrow at 5:00 Eastern Time. Among the stories we'll be covering for you: China's Three Gorges Dam, the most expensive construction project ever, anywhere, just passed an important milestone. But, debate is raging about whether the dam will do more harm than good. That story and more coming up, tomorrow, hope you'll be watching us. And, thanks for joining us today.
Straight ahead on CNN, "CNN LIVE SATURDAY," coming up at the top of the hour.
At 4:30, "Dollar Signs," we'll be taking your e-mails and calls about Martha Stewart. That's followed by "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS" at 5:00 Eastern Time with a profile of Martha Stewart, and "CNN SATURDAY" at 6:00 eastern. First, a quick break, and then we'll tell you what's happening at this hour. I'll be right back.
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Survive in the Woods?; NASA Set to Launch Mars Rover>
Aired June 7, 2003 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, HOST: Today on NEXT@CNN, cleaning up the mess from chemical and bio weapons. Not in Iraq but an hour outside of Washington, D.C.
Also, what does it take to live for years in the woods as Eric Rudolph apparently did? We'll talk to somebody who knows firsthand.
And NASA about to launch a new Mars rover that could find out if there's ever been life on the red planet. That and more ahead.
As the mosquito season threatens to take a bite out of your outdoor plans this summer, cities again prepare to confront the West Nile virus. CNN meteorologist Orelon Sidney joins us with some insight on how the virus made it to the U.S. and what the summer holds for us -- Orelon.
ORELON SIDNEY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I wish I had news on how to get rid of it too. But unfortunately I don't have that.
One of the things that I've been fascinated with, though, is how the virus actually made it to the United States. We have a report for you that may give you a little bit of information.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIDNEY (voice-over): Just the mention of West Nile sends people running for insect repellent. And the notorious virus that's claimed hundreds of lives across the globe shows little signs of slowing down.
The experts differ on how West Nile Virus spread from Africa to the United States, but most agree that there's a link between migratory birds, which are hosts for the infection, and mosquitoes, which transmit the disease when they feed on humans, animals, and other birds.
But how did it get to North America?
The virus that causes swelling in the brain and spinal column was first detected in Uganda's West Nile district in 1937. And the winding path it traveled from east Africa to the United States may lend support to the theory that migratory birds played a part in spreading the disease.
From Uganda the virus spread to Egypt, then Israel, to western Europe, northern Africa, and on to eastern Europe. It then showed up in central Africa, went on to Russia, then the United States, with the first cases detected in New York and three other northeastern states in 1999.
In the four years since the virus was first spotted, it has spread to 44 states across the country. By 2002, there were over 4,000 human cases of West Nile, and almost 300 deaths.
With no cure available, public health experts are urging people to protect themselves and remove all standing water from around their homes. And this year, with almost a dozen states already showing evidence of infected birds and animals, they warn that the spread is not over.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIDNEY: Of course, one of the things you have to worry about is standing water. And one of the problems we've had is extensive rainfall. So far this spring, just take a look at the May 2003 rainfall totals. All of these locations were above normal, from the Mississippi River all the way out into the Atlantic, northward into New England. In fact, some states picked up 200 percent of their normal rainfall. Look at Tennessee, almost 10 inches reported for the month. Southward in Alabama, just about eight inches.
The problem here, of course, is a lot of this region is swampy. Like in the back of my house, the water stands all the time.
There is some good news. As we go through the summer, at least in the beginning, we're not expecting any unusual patterns of precipitation. But there is another problem, as hurricane season gets going. For July, August, and September, southern Florida from Lake Okachobee southward looks for above normal precipitation.
And as we go through the hurricane season, northward into October, you will see above normal rainfall, as well, across parts of the mid Atlantic, all the way up to about Cape Hatteras.
You do want to make sure, even if you're not in one of these areas, that you take precautions for mosquitoes. Things like emptying your dog's bowl. We have a swimming pool in the backyard for our dog. And we have to clean that out about once a week. Even Dad puts a little bleach in it, I understand. That helps to keep the mosquitoes down.
Make sure to repair your outdoor faucets and don't go outside, if you can help it, between dusk and dawn. Apparently, that's the time that the mosquitoes are the most active.
And just a little tip for you, I found out only female mosquitoes bite. They actually have to have the blood in order to lay their eggs and create more mosquitoes -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Orelon, did I hear right? Did you say you have a swimming pool just for your dog?
SIDNEY: It's for the dog. We won't go there, but the dog does have a swimming pool.
WHITFIELD: We've got to go there later, because I've got to have the details on that. All right, so this is all the more reason why people have to really be diligent, knowing that this rainy season is just beginning.
SIDNEY: That's exactly right.
WHITFIELD: You have to be proactive.
What are some of the things they really need to do besides turning over those, I guess, standing water bowls, those dog bowls? Et cetera.
SIDNEY: One of the things that I've found is very helpful is also making sure that you repair the leaks around the house. Because especially the downspouts. You can get those little pools of water. And any puddle of water is going to be a place where mosquitoes breed.
As far as your animals are concerned, remember that they're susceptible, too, not to West Nile but to heartworm.
WHITFIELD: Yes.
SIDNEY: So you do want to vaccinate your dogs against heartworm. Unfortunately there's no vaccine for us. We'll have to wait for that for several years.
One of the best things you can do, though, is to wear insect repellent, especially one that contains DEET -- D-E-E-T. You only want to use as much as you need for the time you're going to be outside, but I'm here to tell you if you go hiking like I do in the mountains of Georgia, the kind of insect repellent they make for those city mosquitoes, it doesn't work as well when you're out in the mountains. So you do want to take a little extra precaution when you go out.
WHITFIELD: All right. Thanks a lot, Orelon. Of course, if you have kids, you're got to read the label because certain age groups need to stay away from DEET, though. Always good advice.
SIDNEY: That's right.
WHITFIELD: Thanks a lot, Orelon. Appreciate it.
Well, it's the kind of trip you can plan and plan for but don't know how it's going to turn out. And when the destination is Mars, more than 48 million Miles away, there's more than a little nail biting involved.
Space correspondent Miles O'Brien has more on a new Mars rover mission set for launch tomorrow.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They call themselves elves. Unseen, and their job, to make magic happen.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you ready for egress?
O'BRIEN: They work at NASA's gateway to the galaxy, Pasadena's fabled jet propulsion laboratory, in a place they affectionately refer to as the sandbox.
But that's not to say this is play time. They are staging the final dress rehearsals for the nail biting main events that have consumed them for past three years: a pair of bold odysseys to the surface of Mars.
This test is a success.
But the celebration is clipped and muted. They work in the shadow of a devastating debacle: the twin failures of the Mars polar lander and climate orbiter in late 1999.
But they also remember the sweet taste of success, of Mars Pathfinder and its rover, Sojourner, in the summer of '97.
JENNIFER TROGPEN, PRODUCT SYSTEM ENGINEER: this is an extremely complex mission. And a lot of us on the team can compare it to Sojourner and Mars Pathfinder. And I think when we talk about that, we think it's about ten times as complex, and we developed it in about half the time. So that's a significant challenge for all of us.
O'BRIEN: They are working under an unforgiving deadline. Not imposed by Washington fiat, but the laws of physics. Every 26 months, Mars and Earth fly in close orbital formation. It's only then a mission to the red planet is possible. And this time Mars is closer than ever.
NAGIN COX, DEP. CHIEF, SPACECRAFT TEAM: this happens to be a particularly good opportunity where we're close enough and the geometry works out that we have an excellent data return. So that means we can bring more pictures, more information about Mars, back to the people of the Earth, in this particular landing opportunity.
O'BRIEN: The twin missions to hunt for signs of life are set for a journey of a quarter billion miles, carrying identical red planet rovers. They're the size of golf carts. If all goes as planned, they will enter the wispy Martian atmosphere on opposite sides of the planet in January, and then deploy parachutes and air bags to cushion their arrival on the rust-colored surface.
JIM ERICKSON, MISSION MANAGER: We do as much as we can to make sure it's a gentle landing. You know, it doesn't sound like it, when we're bouncing on these air bags.
O'BRIEN: In 1999 the Mars polar lander was supposed to arrive alive by using a parachute and then a rocket motor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sorry to report in a nominal no contact M.R. path. O'BRIEN: But when the landing gear deployed with a jolt, a sensor mistook that as touchdown, cutting the engine more than 1,000 feet above the surface.
Two months earlier, the Mars climate orbiter augured into Mars after navigators got confused between metric and English measurements. They were bitter pills for the team.
ERICKSON: We do get very attached to them. And it's probably a good thing, because we take very good care of them. We're entrusted with the public's money to do the right kind of a job. So it's something we take very seriously. And we have great affection for these machines that we build.
O'BRIEN: Today there's no more talk of faster, better, cheaper, the NASA mantra implicated in the failures. This time, the space agency is spending about $800 million to reach Mars with the two landers, about three times more than the price tag for the failed polar lander. And instead of farming work out to contractors in academia, these are in-house projects. Their babies, if you will.
ERICKSON: It's great, it's almost like the birth of a child, in some ways, where you've been waiting, you're been working, and then suddenly, it happens.
O'BRIEN: Mars is an unforgiving destination. Over the years, only one in three missions have succeeded. A little elf magic may be just what is needed.
Miles O'Brien, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: When we come back, new evidence this week that the Earth is getting greener. But that may not be good news. We'll tell you why.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Checking some of the stories making news this week, the panel investigating the Shuttle Columbia disaster has new evidence after conducting an important test in Texas this week.
The investigation team has been firing pieces of foam insulation into shuttle surfaces at high speeds to see what kinds of damage results.
On Friday, investigators fired foam at a wing covered with reinforced carbon carbon, the material at the heart of the current leading theory as to what went wrong with Columbia. The test opened a three-inch crack in the wing. The panel says it is still too soon to say if that's what doomed Columbia, which broke up just before it was scheduled to land on February 1.
They don't call it the greenhouse effect for nothing. New NASA images of our planet from space are part of a new study indicating climate change has made earth greener over the past two decades.
Researchers say increased rain, heat, carbon dioxide and sunlight have created ideal conditions in certain parts of the globe for plants to go wild. Plant growth increased 6 percent over 18 years with nearly half of that coming in the Amazon rain forest.
So is this the smoking gun that proves manmade global warming is for real? The study doesn't go that far but it is another piece of the puzzle.
Almost immediately after the arrest of bombing suspect Eric Rudolph, people started asking, how could he survive for nearly five years in the wilderness?
Ida Hatter is a woman who learned to hunt, fish, and forage while still a youngster. She now teaches about wild edibles and medicinal plants through videos and classes at the Smoky Mountain Field School in Tennessee. It's knowledge that's important even if you're not on the run.
Ida Hatter is with us now.
And you brought some of the stuff that you foraged out in the forests, right?
ILA HATTER, NATURALIST: Right. I brought the wild to you.
WHITFIELD: All right. So it's not so out of the ordinary, in your view, that someone could survive in, say, the Natanhala forest, the 500,000 acres of dense forestation in North Carolina. And some of the things they need to look for include what?
HATTER: There are a lot of vitamins and minerals out there that can sustain life. There's a lot of good flavors in the fields and forests. Things that I cook with every day.
WHITFIELD: Really?
HATTER: And there's things in your backyard that you probably didn't even know were there that are good nutrition.
WHITFIELD: OK. Educate us.
HATTER: All right. The very first tonic which was three "S," the SSS tonic, that stood for sweet birch, sassafras, and spice bush. And I brought those with me today. This is the sweet birch, which has an aspirin-like compound in it, so it would preventing fatigue and headache and so forth. And it was the commercial source of wintergreen.
WHITFIELD: So how would you ingest this? Are you going to, like...
HATTER: You would boil the twigs.
WHITFIELD: OK. HATTER: And at one time, of course, they made...
WHITFIELD: And then drink the juice?
HATTER: Drink it, right. You put it into the water.
WHITFIELD: And that would serve as your aspirin?
HATTER: You would have aspirin in the water which you were drinking, yes.
And this is the spice bush. It, too, has a lot of vitamins and minerals in it. And it is said also now to perhaps alleviate some of the pain of arthritis.
WHITFIELD: That's strong. So you've really got to know your leaf shapes, too, in order to...
HATTER: Yes.
WHITFIELD: ... identify a lot of this stuff, because otherwise it just looks like a lot of green matter.
HATTER: Right.
WHITFIELD: So what do you look for, for something like this?
HATTER: Identification is really important. Know exactly what you're about to ingest or put on your skin, be absolutely positive of what you're using. But once you've learned them and you see them next to -- say, this grows next to dogwood. So when you learn the differences, it's really easy to spot them. An of course, it has that distinctive aroma in it, too.
WHITFIELD: Yes, that was strong.
HATTER: And the sassafras, which the roots of sassafras have always made root beer. So we're familiar with that one. It has the different shaped leaves. It's the mitten tree, kids call it. Because it has a right- and left-handed shaped mitten. So you have the root beer flavor with this and the spiciness.
And these are the seeds, or the berries off of -- dried spice bush berries. And people have always used these for a substitute for cloves and allspice and they are really good. These are the ones I cook with.
WHITFIELD: So you can cook, you can survive, you believe, on most of the stuff that you find out there to eat. But you can also use some of these plants as tools, can't you? Show me how you can use a huge leaf as a cup.
HATTER: All right.
WHITFIELD: To drink. HATTER: Here is a young tulip popular leaf. It's quite large, as you can see. They're not normally this size. But on the young trees, they are very large. And you can fold it, much like you'd fold a diaper. Find one that doesn't have any holes or tears in it. And if you fold it this way, use the stem...
WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh.
HATTER: ... as the pin. And you have a cup that can hold more water than your hand can hold.
WHITFIELD: Wow. You've tried that?
HATTER: Yes.
WHITFIELD: It's effective?
HATTER: It's effective, yes. So there's a wilderness cup.
And I also brought a little bit of...
WHITFIELD: Is that twine or something?
HATTER: Right. You can make cordage. This is very strong cordage that's made from dog bane or...
WHITFIELD: So you can even create, perhaps, a place in which to hide by using a lot of this brush, can't you?
HATTER: You can...
WHITFIELD: I understand there's something called a debris hut.
HATTER: A debris hut.
WHITFIELD: How would you do that, how would you use it?
HATTER: Well, you can use a debris hut, which is, like, a triangular shape of limbs from the tree or even in the crook of the tree with one piece down and with a triangle of two others. And then you lay branches and leaves and layers against that.
WHITFIELD: To sort of protect you from the elements?
HATTER: To protect you from the elements, and you can stay quite warm in that. You can also stuff leaves and various things like milk pods, milkweed pods and things, as insulation inside your clothes. But you can stay warm. You can stay -- for long stretches of time, you could keep yourself fed and warm and you could have medicine in the woods, insulation and so forth, for like I said, long stretches. You would need carbohydrates, which would be difficult to get. You'd have protein, vitamins and minerals, but carbohydrates you would have to take with you or find them elsewhere.
WHITFIELD: Well, Ila Hatter. Who knew you could make a cup out of one of these poplar tree leaves? I don't know what to do with all those things...
HATTER: Here's your bandages.
WHITFIELD: Oh, really?
HATTER: Toilet paper or bandages.
WHITFIELD: And it's kind of fuzzy there, so that's what makes it absorbent?
HATTER: Yes, that's right.
WHITFIELD: All right. Ila Hatter, thanks very much, appreciate it. Thanks for bringing all this stuff for us.
HATTER: You're welcome.
WHITFIELD: Now we can all be a little bit more inventive and creative out there. Thanks a lot.
Well, when we come back, deadly leftovers from the Cold War and how to clean it up safely.
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WHITFIELD: Well, no evidence of biological weapons has turned up in Iraq, but it is showing up in Maryland, along with toxic chemicals at a former military dump.
Jeanne Meserve reports a massive cleanup is underway.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dredged up from the dirt, a crushed and corroded drum, potentially so dangerous workers wear protective suits. A tent covers the site. And the surrounding ground is frozen to prevent the spread of contaminants.
What have they found here? One-hundred-and-thirteen vials, some containing live bacteria. Including a cousin of the microbe that causes plague, and a non-disease causing strain of anthrax used in vaccines.
PHILIP HAGAN, GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY: Typically on something like that, they would be dead. And I was surprised to hear that they were alive. It just shows you how viable and how long-lived some things can be, given protective conditions.
MESERVE: Testing indicates none of the pathogens have survived in the soil.
How did the vials get there? In the '50s and '60s, the U.S. developed and tested its arsenal of biological weapons right here at Fort Detrick.
This was a waste dump. But until recently, no one knew the full scope of what had been put here.
LT. COL. DONALD ARCHIBALD, DIRECTOR OF SAFETY ENV., FT. DETRICK: The practice of the days in the '50s, '60s, and '70s was to find a place, to dig a trench, put your chemicals and things, put your trash in a trench and cover it up.
MESERVE: Chemicals are here, like the cleaning solvents perchloraethylene and tetrachloraethylene, which have contaminated the soil and ground water as containers have deteriorated.
HAGAN: And when they get into the groundwater, PCE is a carcinogen. And TCE can cause liver damage. Kidney damage.
MESERVE: In 1991, the chemicals showed up in the wells of some nearby homes, in concentrations well in excess of EPA limits.
ARCHIBALD: When we found out that it was going off the base, was we put anybody who was drinking water out of their wells on their own property on bottled water.
MESERVE: The cleanup began ten years after the groundwater contamination showed up. But by and large, the community has been pleased by the Army's responsiveness.
GERALD TOOMEY, FT. DETRICK ADVISORY GROUP: It's been positive. Slow and agonizing, but positive.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: And it's not over yet. The cleanup won't be done until next spring. The final price tag, $27 million -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: Now, Jeanne, why did it take so long to get this cleanup started in the first place?
MESERVE: Well, when they figured out they had a problem with the chemicals, first they had to get a sense of the dimensions of the problem. The records were not very well kept. They went back and they talked to former employees, they took aerial photographs of the site. They even did electromagnetic surveys to try and figure out exactly where those chemical drums were.
They established a protocol, then they had to go through the process of getting funding to do this. And then when they finally started digging, they found the biological agents. And then they had two sets of safety protocols that they had to deal with. So it has been a very time-consuming sort of effort.
WHITFIELD: Lots of layers. All right. Thanks very much, Jeanne Meserve from Washington.
Well, coming up in our next half hour, wildfires aren't the biggest threat facing the nation's forests. We'll hear some heated and conflicting opinions about what helps forests and what hurts them.
Also, one country's plan for controlling problem bears with pepper and paint? First, a quick break and a check of the latest headlines.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
WHITFIELD: This week, environmental groups accused the Bush administration of endangering the nation's forests with its plan called the Healthy Forest Initiative. But supporters of the initiative say it's critically needed to control wildfires.
Joining us with some differing views on the subject are R.J. Smith of the Center for Private Conservation and Scott Paul of Greenpeace. Welcome to both of you.
R.J. SMITH, CENTER FOR PRIVATE CONSERVATION: Thank you.
WHITFIELD: R.J., let me begin with you. What's your interpretation of this plan?
SMITH: Well, I certainly don't think this is going to endanger the forests. I think burning the forests down has been what has been a threat and endangerment to the nation's forests, and this is a step in the right direction to recognize that our forest management policies over the last 20 years have been an absolute disaster. I mean, we've been burning down our forests left and right, we've been losing clean air, clean water, destroying wildlife and wildlife habitat, burning down the homes of endangered species. All because people say we should not go in and manage the forests and now we're finally waking up to the fact that we can't afford to burn down these millions of acres every year or every other year, in the national forests.
WHITFIELD: Well...
SMITH: And I think this is across the boards, I mean, republicans and democrats alike recognize that we are sitting on a ticking time bombs with our forest management policy and we must change it and that's what the House voted to do.
WHITFIELD: Well, R.J. let me bring Scott into the picture. Scott, the argument has been that you have to have some sort of managed burning of these forests because they're likely to burn out of control, and there you end up having a problem of a number of the habitats, human or otherwise, that become destroyed if these wildfires. Is this the right approach in which to have some sort of controlled burnings?
SCOTT PAUL, GREENPEACE: The president's plan is not the right approach. First of all, it's very important to remember that fires are a natural part of the forest ecosystem. The president's plan is taking advantage of a very serious problem, it's preying on fears. When you're talking about forest fires, the president's plan mixes apples and oranges. The president is essentially planning to log Idaho to save Malibu. The Forest Services's own statistics say if you want to protect forests in and around homes, then you manage the land within 200 feet of the home itself and you fireproof the home itself. The president is planning on going out to Idaho to log old growth forests to pay back political campaign contributions and his plan does not speak directly to the buffer zone -- the two hundred foot buffer zone in and around communities.
Historically, last year's fires were not above average in the wilderness. The problem took place in and around urban developments where the homes were not properly defended against outbreak of fire.
WHITFIELD: So, R.J., do you see it this way? Robbing Peter to pay Paul?
SMITH: No, I think last year the forests came out of roadless areas. The missionary fire in Colorado, I mean we burned down 40,000 acres of roadless areas, that was more than has been cut in those areas in ten years. The fires that took place in Arizona in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests came out of wild of roadless areas where there was no way to get in and fight those areas. And what the president is calling for and what the western governors are calling for, and remember, almost one-fifth of all democrats in the House voted for this "Healthy Forest" management act. But, they want to go in and to thin out the forests, reduce the deadwood, take out dead and dying trees, diseased trees, insect ridden trees, take out all the...
WHITFIELD: But, is that what happens -- this selective approach of looking for the dying or deadened or diseased trees? Or it's just take out a lot, you know, a designated area?
SMITH: We have to take out a lot of this underbrush, a lot of this -- all these trees in there, I mean, we used to -- yes, fire is natural provided you haven't prevented it for 100 years like we have and particular since Smoky the Bear came in. We put out every fire, we haven't allowed natural fires to come in, so we don't have natural forests anymore, it's fill with thickets.
WHITFIELD: Scott, how do you respond to that?
PAUL: The fires, last year that took place in the wilderness, in the wilderness in the roadless areas, were by no means above average, the national norm, in fact over the last century, they were under half the average of national norm. The Forest Service itself said that these fires were not above average. The issue is fire in and around urban development, fire in and around homes, the president's plan does not speak to this. The president uses scare tactics such as fire outbreak and shows images of fires being devastating rural developments, meanwhile he's directing the Forest Service to go to Idaho, to rural areas that are naturally fire resistant. The president's plan does not speak to protection of fires in and around communities. It directs the Forest Service into old growth ancient forests that are naturally fire resistant, where fire is a natural part of the eco system.
WHITFIELD: And, R.J....
SMITH: I just disagree with that, I think it's an effort to thin out and make the forests healthy everywhere in the West and I think it's a cop-out on the part of some of the radical environmental movements
PAUL: No, this is...
WHITFIELD: Well, R.J., why not...
SMITH: ...to say that all we have to
WHITFIELD: Let me interject
SMITH: ...is have a little buffer...
WHITFIELD: Let me interject. R.J., why not let Nature take its course since the majority of wildfires that took place most recently in Florida, about three years ago, the majority of those wildfires took place and were sparked as a result of lightning strikes?
SMITH: All right, well, what we did, we -- with Smoky the Bear, we started a policy of putting out fires everywhere and once you had such a ticking time bomb of fuel, of deadwood, of dead and dying trees, of thickets of brush, and so on that weren't being cleared out, then when a fire comes through it's absolutely devastating, it destroys the whole forest, it destroys the wildlife, the endangers species, the water quality in streams, and so on. And, what this is an effort to is, to begin to reduce those fuel loads in the forest, so that we'll have healthy forests and then we can have periodic fires that will go through the forests and clean the forest out and not do any harm. And if you let...
WHITFIELD: Well, Scott, do you...
PAUL: Fredricka, this just plain isn't true, where the fires are taking place of extreme intensity are areas that the Forest Service has already managed, where they went in and logged and miss-logged for decades. These are where the significant fires are taking place. These are fires that are coming into the urban wilderness interface and destroying homes. The wilderness areas, these are not unnatural fires, these are part of the ecosystem and these are not causing significant...
WHITFIELD: So Scott, it's your contention it's not the wildlife that is being protected here, but instead, it may be the real estate?
PAUL: Well, who's being protected here, are the political kind of people who are making political campaign contributions. $71 million in campaign contributions came in from the timber and mining industry on our National Forests. These are the people who are being paid back. The president is using claims of excessive red tape and fire scare to give the timber industry access to forests that they've coveted for years.
WHITFIELD: All right, Scott. Well, R.J., you get the last 10 seconds.
SMITH: The people who have access to the forests are all of the people, they're managed for multiple use. So, receptionists can get in there, families can get in there, people who are handicapped can get in the forests. That's what forests -- roads in the forest are for. Yes, people go in and log.
PAUL: Logging is for handicapped people?
SMITH: But the logs are used for people, they build homes...
WHITFIELD: OK...
SMITH: ...people like toilet paper, they like Kleenex, they like these things that come out of the forest and it also allows people to bird watch in the forest, to hunt and fish, and recreate in the forest.
WHITFIELD: R.J. Smith of the Center for Private Conservation, and Scott Paul of Greenpeace, thanks very much gentlemen, for joining us.
PAUL: Thank you.
SMITH: It was good to be on, Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And for a view from the firing line of last summer's fire season, the most intense in 50 years, be sure to catch "CNN Presents: Summer of Fire," Sunday at 8:00 Eastern Time, 5:00 Pacific.
When we come back, we'll find out why a respected online magazine is teaching its readers how to write viruses.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Good news for California's sea otters and those who love them. A survey in May spotted record numbers of otters off the coast. The U.S. geological survey counted more than 2,500 otters during the five day census, the highest count since they've been keeping records and almost 400 otters more than last year.
In April, scientists were worried because so many dead otters were washing ashore. Now they say the increased number of deaths may have just been because there were more otters overall.
The El Dorado County California Sheriff's Department has a new scheme for keeping black bears away from the town of Lake Tahoe and its tempting garbage. When a dumpster diving bear is spotted, deputies will shoot a blast of pepper spray nearby, then a paint ball to mark the bear with the permanent dye. They're hoping pepper spray will scare the bears off for good, but if it doesn't, the fluorescent dye is intended to identify the bears that have been caught with their paws in the garbage. Problem bears sometimes have to be euthanized and wildlife activists hope this will prevent cases of mistaken identity.
The San Antonio Zoo is proudly showing off a new arrival, a baby anteater. You can see the little critter riding on its mother's back there, if you squint really hard. Zoo officials say baby and mother are both doing just great. They don't know the sex of the new anteater just yet and they say it will be awhile before it starts eating ants. In January of this year, a computer virus known as "Slammer" slowed Internet traffic to a crawl, now in a controversial move, "Wired" magazine is going to walk its readers through exactly how that happened, including revealing the virus code itself. CNN technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg joins us with more on that -- Dan.
DANIEL SIEBERG, CNN TECHNICAL CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, that's right, you know when the "Slammer" worm hit the Internet back in January, it reportedly caused hundreds of millions of dollars of damage, we're talking about everything from the Internet being jammed up because it was being sent out at such high rate, plane schedules were disrupted, ATMs shut down, a lot of problems. Of course, the sky didn't exactly fall with "Slammer," but there were a lot of problems involved and now on Tuesday, "Wired" magazine will be publishing its issue -- it's upcoming issues and in it they will have the code from this virus "Slammer" or "Sapphire," as it's often know. So, why are they doing this and how do they respond to some of the controversy around it?
I'm joined, right now, by Blaise Zerega, he is the managing editor of "Wired" magazine, to talk all about this.
Blaise, first the obvious question that comes up on everybody's mind, isn't this analogous to a magazine publishing a how-to for, say a rocket propelled grenade or something like that? Is this going to be more damaging than educational?
BLAISE ZEREGA, MANAGING EDITOR OF "WIRED": We think not, Daniel. The people who are in a position to wreak havoc upon the Internet do not turn to "Wired" magazine to read step-by-step instructions for hacking. However, the people who are in a position to safeguard the Internet, business leaders, technology leaders, politicians, entrepreneurs, they do turn to "Wired" magazine and read us for information on important issues just like this.
SIEBERG: Now, why the decision to publish now, though? The virus, itself, came out about six months ago, there was a patch available from Microsoft even before that. Is there timing associated with the reason that you're doing it now?
ZEREGA: This story is incredibly timely and relevant. Protecting cyberspace is part of Homeland Security, there were attacks in the fall, the "Slammer" virus attacked in January and just this past week, a new worm called Bugbear" -- or actually a new version of a worm called "Bugbear" has been making its way across the Internet.
SIEBERG: Right, "Bugbear" and actually so big, as well, another one people are concerned about, these days. Let's talk a little bit, though about the fact that -- although the code for "Slammer" is already on the Internet and people can have access to it, what was the editorial decision at "Wired" to decide to publish -- I have a copy of the magazine her, don't know if you can see it, but it does have the code in it. Are you not worried that there will be some sort of low- level hackers out there who sees this and they say, oh, finally, this is what I need to do to create a more effective virus out there? ZEREGA: That's a fair question, however, bringing down the Internet is a lot more difficult than cutting and pasting code, putting it in e-mail, and sending it to someone.
SIEBERG: By that rationale, though -- why would you decide to put it out there at all? A lot of anti-virus companies already know this code or they know the problems associated with it. Where do you see the educational purposes of this?
ZEREGA: We are committed to open to, you know, information. Unfettered communication, we want to help set the agenda for public discourse and in this case, we believe in security, not obscurity, if there's a risk, if there's a vulnerability to the Internet, let's shine a light and get people to talk about it.
SIEBERG: Blaise, very quickly -- how do you respond to anybody who says this is sensationalist and just designed to sell magazines?
ZEREGA: I simply don't buy it. We think this is a very important story, we take great care with every word, every image that goes into our magazine so that we can stand by it.
SIEBERG: All right, well, Blaise Zerega, managing editor of "Wired," thanks for joining us to talk about that. And, maybe it's not going to quell all the controversy around it after talking to him, and people will certainly be keeping an eye on this magazine when it comes out on store shelves on Tuesday.
Fredricka, back to you.
WHITFIELD: All right, looking for that, thanks a lot, Dan.
SIEBERG: All right.
WHITFIELD: When we come back, a scientific look at baseball bat tampering. Does it work?
And why the world of big-time horse racing is very interested in this old mule? Coming up -- where is it? Oh, well, we'll show it to you later on.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WHITFIELD: Sammy Sosa may be down but he's not out, at least not yet, in fact he's in the lineup today as the cubs take on the Yankees in Chicago. Mary Frances Bragiel with CNN affiliate, W -- or rather CLTV, who's now from Wrigley Field, and what's the latest there, Mary Frances, I thought he was suspended?
MARY FRANCES BRAGIEL, CLTV CORRESPONDENT: No, he is not. Hi, Fredricka. Actually he's getting a lot of support. As of Friday he is facing an eight-game suspension. However, he and the Cubs are appealing it, which is the reason why he is able to play this weekend. I've also been told that as of Monday, he will find out when a hearing will be scheduled regarding that suspension. But, I've got to tell you he has had a tough week, but he has a lot of support, not only from the Cubs but also from his teammates, as well as, his fans. I went and watched the game a little bit, today. The first time he went up to plate, he got a standing ovation from all the fans, which has got to be a good -- it's got to be a good feeling for him, because he -- as I said, he has had a tough week. Yesterday after he lost the game he was asked about the suspension. He said he didn't want to talk about the suspension; he wanted to talk about the game -- Fredricka.
WHITFIELD: And he is appealing because he says of the more than 70 bats they examined, there were no other -- you know, hanky-panky evidence going on in those other 70 bats, but this indeed was an anomaly, his one practice bat.
BRAGIEL: Exactly, it was one practice bat, he said he is truly sorry, it was truly a mistake. And despite the debate, all week, that's been going on, most of his fans believe what has happened is a true mistake. These bats have been examined; they found no other cork in the other bats, so he's appealing the process and as I said, he's got a lot of support. So, hopefully he can go ahead with this once -- once they move on, and go ahead with his career, which I think will be just fine.
WHITFIELD: All right, Mary Frances Bragiel, thanks very much, appreciate it.
BRAGIEL: You're welcome.
WHITFIELD: Well, how big an advantage does a corked bat give a heavy hitter like Sammy Sosa? The real answer may surprise you. Miles O'Brien got to the bottom of it earlier this week in an interview with the guru of baseball physics.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Why all the fuss about corked bats? You might ask. I want you to meet Bob Adair, he is the author of "The Physics of Baseball," he's a retired professor of physics at, no less than a best institution than, Yale University, and was once -- get this, the official physicist for the National League. The official physicist, who knew? It's good to have you with us, Bob.
I understand Bart Giamatti was the one who signed you up in that role.
BOB ADAIR, AUTHOR, "THE PHYSICS OF BASEBALL": Yes, Bart called me up one evening and asked me to look into a few things, including corked bats.
O'BRIEN: All right, Bob. We're going to show the videotape. I know you can't see CNN, but you've seen it by now. It's lower in the bat than you might expect, and I'm trying to highlight it here, it's almost like the shape of an arrowhead -- there it is, it looks like an arrowhead or an almond or something and it appears it was put in sort of laterally. Is that the typical way that a bat is corked? ADAIR: No. I've never heard of anybody doing anything like that.
O'BRIEN: It seems on the face of it, I'm no expert; but it seems as if that would make the bat more likely to break.
ADAIR: Make it more likely to break, and I can't see that it would do anything particular about making the ball go better.
O'BRIEN: All right, well, let's talk about what's more likely a scenario, if in fact someone were inclined to cork a bat -- we've got a bat, here. This is an official Louisville Slugger, Dale Murphy signed this one. As I understand it, you check me on this, Bob, if I'm wrong. Usually what happens is, a hole about a quarter inch in diameter is drilled right up in the top...
ADAIR: Oh, about an inch and a quarter is (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
O'BRIEN: Inch and a quarter, and it goes how down -- how far down?
ADAIR: Oh, maybe six inches, this is just typical, you know.
O'BRIEN: All right, six inches down, right down the top and -- what's put in? Is it always cork?
ADAIR: Well, people put in all sorts of stuff. That's superstition. People put in cork, SuperBalls, whatever strikes their fancy.
O'BRIEN: SuperBalls? Interesting. So, what that implies is that what you're creating here is a little more elasticity in the bat, and that has sort of a slingshot effect on the ball. Is that really what happens?
ADAIR: Nope.
O'BRIEN: Well, tell us what happens, then.
ADAIR: What really happens is you have a little lighter bat.
O'BRIEN: And, that's a good thing? You want a lighter bat, right?
ADAIR: Well, not necessarily a good thing. Babe Ruth used a 47 ounce bat...
O'BRIEN: 47...
ADAIR: ...and even a 56 ounce bat.
O'BRIEN: 47 ounces, my goodness. You'd need a pneumatic device to lift it up. That's something. So, these days the theory is lighter is better, right?
ADAIR: Not my theory. O'BRIEN: Really?
ADAIR: Mickey Mantle used the 38 ounce bat.
O'BRIEN: Really?
ADAIR: That's right.
O'BRIEN: All right, so why, then? Let's, just for a moment, accept that...
ADAIR: By and large, a heavier bat drives the ball better, but of course it takes longer to swing. So, there's a tradeoff. With a lighter bat, it takes a little less time to swing, so you have a little better timing on the pitch, but you're actually not going to drive the ball quite as far.
O'BRIEN: Oh, interesting. So, really, by drilling it out, putting cork or SuperBalls, whatever you want to put in there, you're potentially hurting yourself as a hitter?
ADAIR: Well, it may improve your timing and you may hit the ball a lot more often. It'll probably take a few feet off of a long home run.
O'BRIEN: So, in other words, it makes you more of a Wade Boggs than Sammy Sosa?
ADAIR: Well, a man like Sosa hits the ball so far anyway, he doesn't have to worry about taking a few feet off and it may be that gaining a few thousandths of a second, six inches on the fastball, may be worth more to him than losing a few feet on a home run that goes into the 20th row of the stands rather than the 22nd, or something.
O'BRIEN: Which bags the question, why oh, why would Sammy Sosa, a person with such incredible skill -- bother with all of this?
ADAIR: Well, these ballplayers are not stupid people. They understand their game very well, but some of the technical aspects, there's superstition involved, they're not trivial. And my guess is that Sammy was a little misled on things.
O'BRIEN: A little mislead, a little superstition, there you have it. That's baseball in a nutshell -- isn't it? Bob Adair, great to see you, thanks for your insights on all of this.
ADAIR: Thanks for inviting me.
O'BRIEN: And giving us the real facts, the Newtonian facts. Physics from Bob Adair, the baseball physicist.
Who knew?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: Well, we know now. Well, that's all we have time for today. But, next we'll be back tomorrow at 5:00 Eastern Time. Among the stories we'll be covering for you: China's Three Gorges Dam, the most expensive construction project ever, anywhere, just passed an important milestone. But, debate is raging about whether the dam will do more harm than good. That story and more coming up, tomorrow, hope you'll be watching us. And, thanks for joining us today.
Straight ahead on CNN, "CNN LIVE SATURDAY," coming up at the top of the hour.
At 4:30, "Dollar Signs," we'll be taking your e-mails and calls about Martha Stewart. That's followed by "PEOPLE IN THE NEWS" at 5:00 Eastern Time with a profile of Martha Stewart, and "CNN SATURDAY" at 6:00 eastern. First, a quick break, and then we'll tell you what's happening at this hour. I'll be right back.
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Survive in the Woods?; NASA Set to Launch Mars Rover>
